serving portions of
Cumberland, Putnam, and White counties on the Cumberland Plateau of
eastern middle Tennessee

Our Community

our community

Our primary ministry field is a very rural area stretched out 18 miles
along US Highway 70S between the Bon Air and Claysville communities (in
White, Cumberland and the isolated Glade Creek Community of Putnam counties) which are between Sparta and Crossville,
Tennessee in what is called the Upper Cumberlands portion of the Cumberland Plateau. Stretching 8-10 miles
or so both on the north and south sides of the highway it covers over
300 square miles, parts of 2 school districts and includes about 6,000
residents on rural home sites or clustered in more than 15 small
communities.

A large portion of the children in
both
school districts qualify for free or reduced price meals, indicating a
significant struggle with poverty.

A survey from several
years ago indicated
at least 33% of our neighbors have not
achieved a high school diploma or GED. Over 40% of our neighbors are not in
the labor force.

Only a small proportion of families have heads of household with year
round full-time employment.

That same survey revealed
that although 25% of the families in
the Pleasant Hill community have income less that 150% of the poverty
line, only 4.1% receive public assistance.

Many in our community,
both younger and older, struggle with disabilities.

About 97% of the people living in
our neighborhoods are native to this community.

There are at least 16 small church
congregations serving these neighborhoods, some independent and others
related to one of 8 different denominational affiliations.

The native mountain people are
proud, self-reliant, and have been family and community oriented.
This has diminished over the years as people started to look down on
their heritage, find work off the land, leave the area, or stay in spite
of being unable to compete with the more highly skilled people moving
into the area.